Its only city is Broken Hill and other significant towns are
Bourke, Brewarrina, Cobar, Ivanhoe and Wentworth.
95 per cent of the region is uncleared. The major industries
are mining and extensive pasturing. During good seasons in the
1870s and 1880s, large sheep stations were established with high
stocking rates, partly in response to a widespread belief that
the introduction of European agriculture would cause climate
change in favour of European conditions. This myth was shattered
by the droughts of the 1890s and many of the stations
established during this period were subsequently abandoned.
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